Knowledge, attitudes and practices toward cervical cancer and screening among sexually active Saudi females visiting a primary care center in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background/Aim: Women’s knowledge of cervical cancer (CC) and awareness of screening procedures are important to improve adherence and reduce mortality. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward cervical cancer and screening among sexually active Saudi females visiting a primary care center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study among sexually active Saudi females who visited the primary care center of our institution using a self-administered survey questionnaire between July and December 2020. Results: Six hundred and one Saudi women participated in the survey with a mean age of 34.0 ± 10.8 years. Three in four women (75.7%) were aware of cervical cancer and 325 (54.1%) believed that doing a Paps smear helped them diagnose and prevent CC. However, 479 participants (79.7%) do not see the need to go for CC screening (n = 199, 41.5%) and 113 (23.6%) had not heard of Paps smear screening. There were 109 women (18.1%) who has good knowledge of cervical cancer and screening and 492 women (81.9%) had poor knowledge. Conclusion: There was a high proportion of women with poor knowledge and awareness about cervical cancer and screening. Most women do not feel the need to undergo screening. Primary care physicians and healthcare providers should revisit the implementation of policies or information dissemination of programs and materials to increase awareness and knowledge for cervical cancer screening and vaccination throughout primary healthcare centers.

Cervical cancer screening; awareness, acceptance and barriers to access among sexually active women of Hail region of Saudi Arabia

“…Similar results were reported in studies in Saudi Arabia (Alsalmi and Othman, 2022;Algabr et al, 2022;Zahid et al, 2022).…”

“…The results indicated a lower awareness level among Saudi women, uneducated/primary educated and women with no access to social media. Similar results regarding the impact of women's age, education and source of information were reported in several studies in Saudi Arabia (Ravichandran et al, 2011;Algabr et al, 2022).…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Related to Cervical Cancer Prevention and Screening among Female Pharmacy Students at a Public University in a Southern Region of Saudi Arabia

“…The rest believed that they were not at risk for developing cervical cancer. Similar attitudes and perceptions were observed among Saudi women from various regions [11,24,27,29]. The lower number of subjects screened for cervical cancer reflects the lack of awareness among pharmacy students, which is similar to that among common women.…”